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Playlist: Poland

Compiled By: Eva Breneman

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Ewa Pietruszka: From Poland to Holland and Back

From Anton Foek | 16:32

After 5 years working blueberries in Holland Ewa comes back to Poland and tells her story of succes and happiness.

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Recently, as the recession continues in the  Western World including Europe, more Polish people are returning home to the lands of their birth.

The economic gap between their homecountry and the rest of the world has decreased and Poland hopes for a stronger and better recovery than many other EU countries.

Moreover, the zloty has gained ground against other currencies. And at the same time average wages have almost doubled in Poland, so many Polish migrants who at one time were attracted by prospectz of finding work in other countries are finding that financially they may as well stay at home.

Ewa Pietruszka from the OKAP in Opole uses such statistics and says that they are available and show that the large numbers of new Polish immigrants to Western Europe hase slowed down. 

Figures show that in 2012 the number of Poles travelling to Western Europe  was dencreasing only after increasing the years before.

The Institute for Public Policy Research produced figures claiming that half of the estimated 1.5 million Poles who had entered the country since 2004 from Eastern Europe had gone back home.

However those claims were questioned by the Centre for International Affairs in Warsaw. The centre claimed that  millions of Polish workers still live in Western Europe including workers, students and dependants.

Also the Polish Central Statistical Office, which produces its own estimates of Poles working abroad said that the number of Polish workers had fallen., although official figures were not available, unemployment rates in Poland are stable.

This would also indicate that not as many Poles had returned from the UK as are claimed by the IPPR figures.

However, the recovery  in Poland has led to many reversing their earlier decision to look for work elsewhere and are buying one-way tickets to the Poland again.

Once again, because of the fluctuations due to seasonable labour and inconsistencies with official figures it is difficult to say with any precision, not only how many Polish people are working in Western Europe at any one time but also how many Poles are leaving to return to their place of birth.